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Sincerely, Charles Kozierok
Author and Publisher, The TCP/IP Guide

NOTE: Using software to mass-download the site degrades the server and is prohibited.If you want to read The TCP/IP Guide offline, please consider licensing it. Thank you.

Every author who sets out to write
a book or other document has certain objectives that he or she hopes
to accomplish when the work is completed. This is why you can go into
a library or bookstore, pick up several books that cover the same subject,
and discover that they are surprisingly differentnot just in their
content or scope, but in their entire approach to the material.

I too had a number of goals when
I set out to write this Guide; you certainly dont need to know
them in order to read and appreciate the material, but knowing what
I had in mind while I was writing may help you while you are reading.
And if you are reading this information prior to licensing The TCP/IP
Guide, knowing what I strove for in writing the Guide may help you decide
if this is the right resource for you.

My overall goal in writing this Guide
was to create a resource that would allow anyone to obtain a deep understanding
of how TCP/IP technologies really work. To accomplish this, I had a
number of specific objectives that guided my writing efforts:

Comprehensiveness: Like most authors writing
a resource that covers a large subject, I wanted the TCP/IP Guide to
be comprehensive. Of course no single document can cover everything,
so I have had to limit the
scope of the material. However, I feel
I cover more about TCP/IP as a whole than any other single book or other
resource.

Comprehensibility: Creating a resource
that is comprehensive is important, but I felt that it was even more
important that the Guide be comprehensible. Over the past
few years, Ive had the opportunity to review many hundreds of
books, guides, Web sites and papers related to networking. I have found
that even though most of them are generally high in quality, too many
use unexplained technical jargon or assume extensive prior knowledge
of networking concepts and technologies on the part of the reader. I
worked very hard to ensure that my descriptions, even of very complex
concepts, can be understood by almost every student of networking.

Rationale: Its certainly important
to know how every TCP/IP protocol functions. However, to gain a true
understanding of complex material, one also needs to understand the
reasons behind why things are what they are. In writing this material
I have always tried to explain not just the what but also the
why of TCP/IP. I have anticipated and answered questions
that I believed would commonly arise in the mind of someone learning
about this technology.

Illustrations: A picture is worth a thousand
words, as they say. There are many concepts that no amount of verbiage
will adequately explain, while a simple illustration will do the trick.
For this reason, I spent many months creating over 300 full-color diagrams
(some simple and some not so simple!) to complement the written material
in The TCP/IP Guide.

User-Friendliness: I have intentionally
broken many of the rules of conventional book authorship, in creating
a document that uses a conversational, first-person style, and no small
amount of humor where appropriate. My intention was to make you feel
at home while you read material that can be quite technically difficult.
I want you to think of me like a friend sitting next to you at your
computer explaining how TCP/IP works, rather than a professor preaching
at you from a pulpit.

Organization: Many networking books consist
of dozens of subjects just listed one after the other, leaving the reader
to wonder how everything fits together. When I first began this Guide,
I spent weeks just organizing it, with the result being a hierarchical
structure that indicates clearly how subjects
are inter-related. I also carefully laid out each individual section
to ensure that it covered its topic in a way that made sense.

Multiple Levels of Detail: I realized
that some people reading a TCP/IP Guide might only want a quick summary
of the operation of its constituent protocols, while others want to
learn all the nuances of how everything works. I have provided the full
details that most readers will want, while also providing overview topics
in each section that summarize each technology for quick perusal. This
gives you the option of either skimming the surface or diving
deep, as you choose.

Platform Independence: I have endeavored
whenever possible to avoid describing TCP/IP in terms specific to any
hardware or software platform. Even though I use a PC for most of my
computing and UNIX for other aspects, most of the material is not particular
to any type of device or operating system (though I do focus more on
networks of smaller computers than larger ones).

How successful was I in achieving
these goals? Id like to think I did a pretty good job, but ultimately,
you will be the judge!

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